Radio Australia Today Editorial

A boot on the head. A maritime PR disaster.

28 January 2010

I blogged earlier this week about the enquiry into the explosion on-board a boat carrying Afghan asylum seekers in Australian waters. The incident, if you remember, happened on the SIEV 36 which was being towed by an Australian naval vessel near Ashmore Reef in April.

The inquest was told that after the explosion sent dozens of asylum seekers and some Australian naval personnel into the ocean, and the navy was trying to rescue them, a member of the Australian Defence Force raised his foot and connected with the heads of two overboard asylum seekers to block them from getting onto a rescue boat.

The evidence was given by Corporal Sharon Jager, who was one of the naval personnel blown into the water. She told of struggling to get onto the rescue boat with Afghans also trying to scramble onto the boat. I’ll quote here: “[Able Seaman Adrian Medbury] has moved along and he has physically removed the two asylum seekers, saying ‘Get the f— off her, get the f— of her’ as he dragged me into the boat. I saw him raise one of his feet, connect with the asylum seekers, from what I saw it was the head.”

Sharon Jager suffers from that moment, having symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Even at the time of being rescued, she understood the inequality of having your life saved at the expense of others around her.

The inquest was told that the navy’s policy was to save naval staff first before rescuing others.

Kicking in the head probably doesn’t come into official regulations.

Mind you, we must remember that this all happened in a flash. The officer on the rescue boat may well have been thinking that Sharon Jager’s life was in peril, as it was. The evidence did seem to suggest that there was a lot of scrambling, and that the desperate asylum seekers, fearing for their lives, were grabbing onto anything they could. It is a reasonable assumption that poorer people from land-locked Afghanistan may not be able to swim in ocean waters. You can understand their panic they might have felt at that moment, and perhaps you can also understand the momentary reaction of a soldier seeing a comrade at risk of being drowned by those around her.

It’s still a terrible look for Australia, and I’m sure all the people involved wish it had never happened.

We must always remember though that in Australia we have a justice system which allows this kind of evidence to come out, even if it does tarnish our image overseas.

- Phil Kafcaloudes